Rights and Prejudice: Linguistic and Legal Implications of Gendered Discourses in Judicial Spaces - GenDJus

Associated investigator - Head of the Unibo research unit: Carmelo Danisi

The GenDJus project is conceived as an interdisciplinary research project in the areas of Discourse and Law on Gender and Sexuality for the investigation of the impact of prejudice, stereotypes and bias on the three international human rights courts – the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the African Court of Human and People’s Rights –, the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU) and the highest national courts in Italy. An effective protection of individuals can be indeed achieved through language: if words are unable to express the need for protection that underlies certain demands for justice, then there is a risk of not only violating human rights applicable to the concrete situation, but also of fueling obstacles to fundamental freedoms across the EU.

That is why, by means of a corpus-based analysis of judicial texts in Italian, English and Spanish, the project explores as a testbed a specific area where these subtle forms of discrimination seem to be more persistent, i.e., sexual, reproductive and parental rights, and it does so from both a linguistic and a legal (i.e. international law and EU law) point of view. Identifying such practices and understanding them - in order to eradicate them through language and law - can contribute to the improvement of the functioning of justice and to the enjoyment of fundamental rights without any discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation or gender identity, thus avoiding time-consuming and costly court proceedings. While advancing innovative methodologies to detect new forms of discrimination, the project identifies concrete ways to improve judicial discourse(s) and avoid the unconscious reiteration of negative attitudes against gender and sexual minorities in the international/EU/Italian spheres.

Website: https://gendjus.it/

Members of the Department

Marco Balboni
Erika Miyamoto
Francesca Ragno

Other members

Publications

Carmelo Danisi, Maternità surrogata come reato “universale”: considerazioni di diritto internazionale e dell’Unione europea, «GENIUS», 2/2023, Rivista di studi giuridici sull’orientamento sessuale e l’identità di genere – GenIUS, pp. 75-94

All events are available at: https://gendjus.it/research-outputs

Conferences, lectures and talks

• International Workshop: The 2024 GenDJus Workshop: Gender Stereotyping In International Human Rights Law And Discourse, University Of Bologna/Forlì Campus – Teaching Hub (Room 16), 29 November 2024, 9am-5pm (more info at: https://gendjus.it/events/gendjus-workshop-gender-stereotyping-international-human-rights-law-and-discours)
• Seminar: The African System of Human Rights Protection, University Of Bologna/Forlì Campus – Room 3.1, 28 October 2024, 5-7pm
• Panel: Translating Reproductive, Sexual, and Parental Rights: An Exploratory Corpus-Based Analysis of Gender-Sensitive Language in Spanish and Italian Versions of CJEU Case-Law, at the International Conference Legal Translation & Interpreting on the move. Research and Professional Opportunities, University of Trieste, 3 October 2024, 2-4pm
• Seminar: Stereotipi, genere e diritti umani nei giudizi interni e internazionali, University Of Bologna/Forlì Campus – Teaching Hub (Room 6), 19 May 2024, 11am-1pm
• Talk: La prospettiva di genere nelle crisi internazionali, University Of Bologna/Forlì Campus – Teaching Hub (Room 6), 13 December 2023, 7-8.30pm

All events are available at: https://gendjus.it/outreach-activities